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Sundar Pichai Next? Trump's Next Big Tech Payday Could Be From YouTube After Settling Lawsuits With Meta And X: 'Productive Discussions' Underway

Benzinga·07/04/2025 01:43:40
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Donald Trump has turned his attention to Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) as settlement talks progress in his lawsuit against YouTube, a subsidiary of Google, following multimillion-dollar payouts from Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) and X, formerly Twitter, over similar claims of political censorship.

What Happened: Trump sued YouTube, along with its CEO Sundar Pichai, in 2021 after the platform banned his account in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

The lawsuit alleges that YouTube engaged in "impermissible censorship" under pressure from U.S. political leaders, violating Trump's First Amendment rights.

Court filings from late May reveal that both sides are now in "productive discussions" and requested a delay in proceedings until Sept. 8, reported The Hill.

See Also: Amazon, Google Not Far Behind, But Dan Ives Says Microsoft ‘Clearly Leading' In These Segments — $600 Price Target Is ‘Probably' Conservative

 "The parties have engaged in productive discussions regarding next steps in this case, with additional discussions anticipated in the near future," the filing stated.

Why It's Important: Earlier this year, Mark Zuckerberg's Meta paid $25 million and Elon Musk's X paid $10 million to settle similar lawsuits with Trump.

Earlier this week, Paramount Global (NASDAQ:PARA) (NASDAQ:PARAA) also agreed to pay $16 million to resolve a lawsuit brought by Trump regarding a "60 Minutes" interview featuring then–Vice President Kamala Harris.

However, the company did not offer an apology or acknowledge any wrongdoing as part of the settlement.

Price Action: Alphabet Inc.'s Class A shares slipped 0.017% in after-hours trading, and its Class C shares edged down 0.0055%, according to Benzinga Pro.

Benzinga's Edge Stock Rankings show a favorable trend for GOOGL across the short, medium and long term. Additional performance details can be found here.

Photo Courtesy: Joey Sussman on Shutterstock.com

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.